SPOTLIGHT: Sweeping Culture Daily

Must Watch: The Golden Heights of How to Dress Well’s “& It Was U” Video

By Bryan Hood | Yesterday Urban Outfitters, of all places, premiered the music video for one of our favorite song of 2012: How to Dress Well‘s “& It Was U.” Things are rarely as they seem with Tom Krell’s one-man indie R&B project, and the Luke Gilford-directed clip is no different. The gold and brown-filled video takes place at what at first appears to be a support group meeting in the back of an old rundown strip-mall location, but it soon becomes clear it’s actually a spiritual gathering. But this is the sort of religious ceremony, that actually seems fun, filled with hugging, finger snapping, and dancing, and if that wasn’t enough, the gold-draped object of worship actually shows up in person, wearing Timberlands and riding a Segway no less (on the way there he pays NBA great Cedric Ceballos a quick “visit” at a Mexican restuarant). The video is capped off with two quick shots of the congregants attaining spiritual enlightenment.

The clip is the latest in the UO Music Video Series, an attempt to united “cool” indie bands with talented music video directors, where Urban Outfitters covers the costs, but the musicians and filmmakers retain full creative control. It’d be easy to make fun of except that the results have been consistently great. Our current favorite (other than the HTDW vid): John Ryan Manning’s anguished video for Cloud Nothing’s “No Future/No Past,” which you can watch here.